


In Order

by Notsam



Category: Elisabeth - Levay/Kunze
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Related, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, The Author Is not a English native user!, retrogration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:55:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27396841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notsam/pseuds/Notsam
Summary: **English version of my same fanfic in Chinese. (with the help of a translator. sorry for that :-(He may want a talk with Death, while he's in the sealed coffin."What did you see?""I saw - I saw you born in a kiss."
Relationships: Franz Joseph I von Österreich & Rudolf von Österreich-Ungarn | Rudolf Crown Prince of Austria, Rudolf von Österreich-Ungarn | Rudolf Crown Prince of Austria & Der Tod | Death (Elisabeth), Rudolf von Österreich-Ungarn | Rudolf Crown Prince of Austria/Der Tod | Death (Elisabeth), Rudolf von Österreich-Ungarn/Marie Alexandrine von Vetsera
Kudos: 2





	In Order

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [循序/In Order](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26442334) by [Notsam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notsam/pseuds/Notsam). 



> hey. I try to make an English version of my same fanfic in Chinese(《循序》). Maybe this one can be easier to read for you foreigners? I can only hope.  
> I'm not an English speaker so... well, you know.   
> At least I've tried.
> 
> if you like it I'll be happy.

> "What did you see?"
> 
> "I saw - I saw you born in a kiss."

He was asleep in a state of chaos.

For an endless length of time, he felt his flesh shrivel and wither, his skin and bones shatter and wind erode, helplessly allowing his body to crumble and fly away, then the dull smell of decay struck his sense of smell, snaking reptilian-like into his cranial cavity, tightening suddenly and unexpectedly, causing him to suffer the impossible pains of the human world on the brink of unconsciousness. A loud, sharp bang pierced his skull, a soft, cold touch left his lips, and he awoke from his drowning dizziness and opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was the long hair glowing in the night, then a pair of dead eyes that met his, and he shrank away, sweeping his gaze over the moonlit face in the darkness, then the closed lips - which he subconsciously guessed had remnants of his own heat on them.

"-Mary?" His throat quivered and he squeezed out a smooth syllable, but there was no response. Instead, his clasped hand was forced to move outward, and some metallic tubular object sent a chill through his hands that made his scalp tug at his scalp and shudder.

"Mary?"

The hand that clasped his waist loosened, the face receded back, the lace skirt cut across the side of his leg like a gust of wind, and he saw lean cheekbones and a straight nose, fascinating and intimidating, beautiful and sinister, masculine and feminine, retreating in the darkness, sometimes hidden, sometimes hallucinating the face of his lover Mary, throwing him flashes of seduction.

A cold light crossed his vision and he subconsciously jumped over it. A sneer echoed in the claustrophobic space amplified by the darkness, thousands of identical faces whirled among the nocturnal garments, huge black wings clung behind those dresses, the faint reflection of a gun leaped among like a frightened hummingbird, which he chased wildly around until he was exhausted. Finally a thrust behind him forced him to fall forward, he turned back, staring at a stranger in a black dress raising the barrel of the gun. A dark wing spread slowly behind her, and finally everything faded into the darkness. The oil lamp on the table glowed slowly. And with the light came a woman's voice, dull, as if through a sturdy door.

"...Why are you telling me this?"

He swallowed, gradually finding the normal position of his throat. He heard himself speaking involuntarily, almost begging, "But, ……I pray you, Mama! Father was about to discover my rebellion, and I had nowhere to go..."

"Off you go!... I don't want to hear anymore-"

"I shall die!... Please... please intercede for me in front of father-" He pushed open the door in front in a panic, but it was easier than it seemed. He staggered with unsteady strength and half-kneeled. But his mother, who he remembered as being richly dressed, was not inside. There was no more than silence in the room.

"Rudolph."

He bounced up and turned away with reverent dread, it was as thousands of invisible ants crawling up his cheeks, creeping and gnawing.

"I've heard of...scheming...betrayal...even you - my son?" The emperor's voice was majestic but distant, flickering vaguely with the flame, sometimes bright, sometimes out, and the shadow merged with other things, a dark but obscurely slight shaking, so that for a moment he thought he was witnessing a solemn group of people in black with wings folded, but the next moment, all was just a large shadow behind the emperor.

He shouted "Father" under his breath and scrambled forward, but the figure crumbled and disappeared like a bubble, and he nearly ran into a stone wall, but was pulled back by a hand sticking out from behind him.

"W-what?" He heard the person who held him back muttering something but failed to recognize it. He struggled, but his wrist was held tighter. People in hooded cloaks paced silently out of the shadows, wrapped in an uneasy whisper.

"We are certainly surprised that Prince Rudolph is willing to join..." the person made a jarring noise, the hand clamping down on Rudolph's wrist still. Rudolph took a step back, the unusual coldness from the hand seeping through his skin and bleeding all over his body, his eyes staring at the long hair that hung down under the hood.

"So-"

"But we can't leave our concerns behind. - "

"What should I do?"

" - SEIZE POWER!" That person suddenly shouted and drew Rudolph so close that he shuddered violently, and the next second Rudolph saw the face under the hood with their noses pressing- twisted and frenzied, frenzied and furious, masculine and feminine, beautiful and vicious - all around him, each of the cloaks brushed down to reveal a black and blue uniform with half black wings. Light came in between the curtains of the window, the underground intersecting chamber was hidden, and the appearance of his living quarters emerged in the light.

"-what?" He buried a shuddering question.

"What are you hesitating about? How could you let the world-" "mary" pulled off her cloak, grabbed him by the neck, and shoved him so hard that they fell down together into the bed, which the maid had made fresh.

"And how am I at your mercy again?!" Rudolph roared and struggled up, fighting to break the fingers that clamped down on his throat.

The other person released _her_ hands sharply, but still held Rudolph's shoulders in a death grip so he couldn't move, and buried _his_ head close to Rudolph’s skull, but no breath sprayed in the Prince's face, "And you know me."

Of course, Rudolph knew that this face - not because he'd once given him a kiss in a long dress in a sharp nightmare - was not of Mary’s, but Death himself, leading a host of black angels prowling around his mother, and doomed to haunt him for the rest of his life. But, he, Rudolph, still, as a mere mortal, cannot stand the idea of indulging hid fate being a puppet -

But Death immediately tightened the silk string - he bit into Rudolph's throat, leaving a deep gash of blood with an intensity that almost snapped, and Rudolph let out a short scream. "You know in mind that great misfortune is to come-" Death looked up at him in rage, meanwhile the Prince turned his head, so a cold kiss struck the air beside Rudolph's skull, and he choked at last with despair, "And I can't do anything about it? - "

He screamed uncontrollably. They were both naked. Heatless flesh wrapped around him like pythons in prey. Suffocating. Trembling. Pain in a burst. Coldness in boiling water. The chill ran through him, bringing out shrieks and sealing in despair. Around in the room, black angels with duplicate faces stared in silence.

But, then, he went cold and straightened up. Down to the bottom of the tray tears of candles slid, and also did he slide down, to lie on Death's lap, pressing down on a piece of fabric on which all the blood and filth was from himself. Death just looked down at him with a blank expression, clutching the edge of the cloth. The image of his own stiff limbs wrapped in it sprang to Rudolph’s mind, so he stepped back in a panic and stood up. Everyone turned to stare at him in a deathly stillness. Death stood up, took a step forward, and gave him a push.

He leaned back, flipped out over the edge of the window, and fell heavily into the snow with a sense of weightlessness. He wobbled, even clumsily, and stood up, patting the snow and dust from his body. A hare glanced at him and rushed into the woods. A maid came running in a flurry and bent down slightly to take his hand.

"You, you-your highness, you’d been s-s-sought for in my g-great effort! We-we are going to..." the maid was visibly frightened, and stumbled over her words, her other hand strangling her dress. "Let's go back to your room, I've brought you supper, and you must not - not run around like that in the future, please - ugh."

He nodded, and the maid unconsciously touched him on the head, finding it so offensive, she withdrew her hand hastily, which in turn made the poor girl more anxious, until she returned to the room with Rudolph.

"Listen to me, your highness - you shouldn’t run off like that next time, let the Countess knows... alas, anyway, listen. I heard that before," she watched him as he ate slowly, leaning closer to him to lower her voice, "if you behave well, perhaps the Empress will be willing to see you and dine with you in the next few days - your mother, your mom!"

He nodded and didn't say a word until the maid had collected everything and closed the door with a curtsy. He stared at the corner of the maid's coat as it disappeared between the door crack, took a quick glance around - it wasn't necessary, as there shouldn't be anyone else in his room - fetched a candy from his coat pocket and hurriedly popped it into his mouth. But then suddenly he caught a glimpse of a strange man in the corner, and so the sugar was swallowed whole in a panicked shock.

"... I saw you born in a kiss."

"That's absurd enough."

"Your own question gets my answer." He walked away uninterestedly.

He shouted out in a panic -

"Don't you go!" He took the man by the shoulders. His hands were too tiny for the motion, but the man stopped anyway, and a smug smile slid from his lips in an instant.

"I'm not going anywhere," the man said softly, "stop calling for your mother, she won't come."

"And me - I could be a man," he rose in bed, cross-legged and energetic, "and me, I could kill a cat tomorrow."

He saw a fairly amazed look from the man, and that amazement was instantly replaced by amusement as he laughed and touched his face. The hand was cold, but it gave the little Prince a motherly caress likewise. But the hand then left, disappeared with its owner into the darkness.

"Mama?"

He lay down, the bed slowly getting smaller, and he whimpered and sobbed, finally cried even bawled.

The maid came scurrying over, softly coaxing "hush, hush, hush - " and shoved a pacifier into his toothless mouth.

" - At your mercy. Even if you don't want to spend any more time with me, smooth my corners, will you? I'm going to lie here forever, but that is much too uncomfortable - " he heard his own voice in a jar, echoing dully in the six feet of dirt and thick coffin.

"And how do you decide I am to do you this favor?"

"If not, you've haunted me for my whole life? ..."

"Stupid. You think I was doing all this for you?"

"I know - I know. It’s for my - "

" - Mother."

The maid released the pacifier and picked him up and shook him gently. Warm arms slowly expanded to wrap around him, eventually becoming a hot, wet, dark, enclosed chamber. He curled up inside, his eyelids closed tightly, his navel connected to the small chamber. Through that chamber, there were syllables like this from outside. Then came more tiny noises.

"Father."

"Child."

"If it's a son, I'm going to name him myself."

But he could hardly hear it, much less understand it. He gradually shrank, his five fingers merging into a disk, growing a tail and balling up into a small ball. Finally, he slid along the damp inner wall, growing smaller and smaller, and at last disappearing into nothingness.

He was painfully and soberly aware of the unsmoothed corners of his coat, which had discomforted him immensely since. But Death had gone for - decades? hundreds of years? He can't tell, or it's only been one day or two.

Then he smelled the growing stench of decay, feeling his flesh losing water and shrivel, his bones eroded and weathered.

He didn't even get a chance to complain for once - in the end, he was still only ever awake in the chaos of his body's dissipation.

**END.**


End file.
